Notre Dame DC Al Golden Ready For Dangerous, Balanced UGA Offense
Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden isn’t worried about having to prepare for a quarterback in Wednesday’s AllState Sugar Bowl who he doesn’t have much film on.
In fact, Golden seems to think he has plenty of film on Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton, who will start his first game for the Bulldogs in place of Carson Beck after appearing in a relief role in just three games this season.
“There’s 80 plays this year, so that’s a sufficient amount,” Golden said of Stockton. “More importantly, ‘When he came into the game, did they change their structure or did he execute the system that’s there?’”
According to the Irish, Georgia didn’t change much of anything with Stockton, who played the entire second half of the SEC Championship Game against Texas.
“That’s usually pretty telling that they believe he can execute the system as it exists,” Golden continued. “Certainly, there’s things that every quarterback when compared to another does differently or has strengths compared to another, so we’re looking at what he did in those 80 plays, and then obviously what he’s done in his past.”
Golden said he hasn’t probed for weaknesses as much as he’s looked for strengths for which his his unit needs to be prepared.
“I don’t really look at so much what they struggle with,” he said. “I just look at what we have to defend really well. I don’t see any decrease in terms of what they’re going to ask him to do relative to the offense. He has the skill set to do everything that they’ve done all year.”
Much of that is due to what Georgia asks its quarterbacks to do and the other players in the huddle.
“The system is a great system,” Golden said. “They have talent around him; three running backs, three or four tight ends, excellent wide receivers that can beat you downfield vertically. There’s a lot of weapons there.”
Golden acknowledged that he looks at what other teams attempted to do against Georgia’s offense and what was successful, but in the end, it’s always about what his team does best.
“Everything starts with who and what,” he said. “Who? The players, in this case a number of really good tight ends, backs out of the backfield, wide receivers. And then the what. The what is the challenges that their offense and their offensive coordinator and play-caller present, which is significant.”
Georgia has averaged 285 yards per game passing against just 129 yards per game rushing, but to Golden that isn’t a sign of a weak running game. All that he really concerns himself with is the fact that the Bulldogs average 34.4 points per game.
“I just think they’re balanced,” he said. “It’s all about winning the game.
“The reality is it’s all of those components coming together. It’s not just running. It’s running that sets up the playaction that creates a shot for a tight end or a receiver. It’s a third-down back coming out of the backfield. They just have a lot of different ways to get to it. I’m sure they look at some of their screens as runs, even though they go in as passes. Or some of the different little ways they get the ball to the back. That’s just a different way of getting to a run.
“I don’t look at it like that. I look at it like they have explosive potential at running back and obviously three good ones.”
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